It’s all about fandom nowadays, fandom this, fandom that but what does that word mean? It’s has only really come into common use in the past 20 years.

As a noun it’s definition is “the state or condition of being a fan of someone or something”. Seems pretty simple and Wikipedia adds that “A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of camaraderie with others who share a common interest.” This seems a reasonable assessment, so it is being a fan then…anyway, as with all of these blogs, let’s look at how fanzines match up.

Cover Story.

I bet Rudyard Kipling would have produced a great fanzine. QPR’s In The Loft issue 52 from 1992 sort of pays tribute to Rudy by summarising perhaps the most common feeling fans have on its cover, their season summed up as a series of ifs.

“If only our 15 draws had been wins”. Well yes and if only I’d been born to a family of rich aristocrats lads. The editorial goes further, apparently none other than Andy Sinton (12 caps for England, TWELVE!) had put this down to QPR always going for the win, this after a run of  four 0-0 draws in ten games in a season which would have 18 draws!

Families, werewolves and muscles.

Why you became part of that subculture came up a lot in fanzines, the same edition of ITL had this fantastic explanation as to why Aidan had become a QPR fan.

It was mainly because his big brother told him to but mixed up in there were Gary Waddock’s muscles, wearing the hoops and, fortuitously, an early 6-0 drubbings of local rivals Chelsea! It wasn’t all plain sailing though; a werewolf nearly put a stop to all of this. FANtastic! (Stop it now – Ed)

Man City fan Gideon revealed further family fan ties and why he became a fan in issue 16 of King of the Kippax in 1991. This is not a simple case of following your dad’s team however, it turns out his dad was Brighton’s reserve keeper for a while and though a game against Brighton kindled his love for City, he was initially a rather reluctant fan. He describes standing on the Stretford end as a student in Manchester as well as the Kippax, something I would do as a student as well as trips to Gigg Lane, Turf Moor and Edgley Park. All poor substitutes for Saltergate you understand but needs must. Something of a dying art today I suspect as fandom has become excessively tribal.

Passion Plays

There were passionate editorials a plenty, but I chose one from Manchester United fanzine Red Issue number 295 in 2015 for some Manchester balance. Not that Red Issue was known for its balance at times, they had a regular columnist called Mr. Spleen, known for being much more critical of Manchester United and the teams’ players than others. They were also behind the unveiling of a banner at Anfield taunting Liverpool fans with United’s new league titles record in 2011…this at a game between Liverpool and Tottenham[1] This is a fantastic story, including news of a getaway car waiting outside the ground and fellow conspirators in the adjoining stand in order to (just about) get photographic evidence. Fandom at its finest.

So in the editorial it’s something of a surprise that they call BS on a Guardian article suggesting the M62 derby had become the “most high profile grudge match of the Premier League years” until you realise that they feel it was far worse years ago and go on to excoriate the sanitised nature of football viewing in 2015. These words still ring true today, even more so to be honest, “the killing of a culture that’s long since been deceased” hits particularly hard.

The bit about fanzines being confiscated was something ridiculous that happened many times, not just along the M62 corridor and is something we’ll touch on in other blogs.

Getting Shirty

Fans wearing your shirt at unusual locations around the world was a common feature in fanzines. A Love Supreme still trundles on of course and way back in issue 36 from the 93/94 season (Dreadful numbering system lads) they featured fans demonstrating their devotion to the cause by wearing their shirt on holiday.

I love this example because of the range of great photos; A Tori (sic) gate in Japan, ‘Diananesque’ in front of the Taj Mahal in India, an entire Sunlun shirt wearing family apparently in Oregon but clearly at the Golden Gate Bridge which is actually in California. This is great fanzine stuff, the best though is Mark from Donny who didn’t bother with a replica shirt, he just had his pic taken in a T shirt in front of a palm tree. Come on Mark, make a bit more effort next time.

More Daft Fandom things

We’ll only stay briefly with travel but it is one of the constants for football fandom and we’ll cover the ins and outs of this issue specifically in another blog. For now though I must mention the story from Preston’s classic 53 Miles West of Venus issue 8 (for an explanation of this name see here https://footballfanzineculture.blog/2025/05/30/the-list-playlist-side-1/ ) They had picked up news from another fanzine, Watch The BlueBirds Fly from Cardiff. Turns out the Bluebird lads got in in trouble with the Met in London…for wearing hats. OK these hats had been pilfered from National Express but surely the Met could have deployed their resources more sensibly..actually scratch that, it’s pretty typical even today.

Fans-Fanzines-Fandom

Fanzines started for various reasons, as a protest, to raise the voice of the fans, just for fun or to record the stupid fan conversations that went on in the pub and on the coach/terraces. There is a great article from 1999 and issue 150 of Newcastle stalwart The Mag with a nice musically linked title. It’s also a great piece on being a fan so let’s delve further.

They reveal 13 years on why they started. Another fanzine with When Saturday Comes as its inspiration, or rather the fact that the Mackem’s had a zine listed in WSC. But, it was also firmly driven by the departures of Waddle, Beardsley and the final straw, Gazza. It was devised to be a facsimilie of “What fans talked about in the pub” the story behind so many fanzines.

Fighting for better facilities was a staple of many fanzines. In this era of all seater stadia and exec boxes it seems incredible that Newcastle chose to put in exec boxes before they put a roof on the Gallowgate…though on reflection perhaps it doesn’t. £4 to get in though, what do you want lads?!

There is mention of their opposition to satelite TV, something that also appeared in many, many fanzines. Twenty seven years on these comments seem very tame and Sky has indeed changed the face of football. The resurgence in support for non league football shows very clearly that this has been for the benefit of football in this country, slightly offset by the obscene sell out of top flight football to the money men. The World Cup this year promises to produce a huge number of new lows.

They report that despite their efforts racism is sadly still a problem albeit a vastly reduced one, a story that would repeat itself at many clubs because of the efforts of fanzines. It is depressing to think that here we are 27 years later with Farage and his pathetic racist antics stoking another resurgence.

The summary, 149 issues later is somewhat downbeat but equally it identifies very well the reason why fanzines were and still are an important part of fandom..providing a voice, protest and holding whoever is in charge responsible and at least vaguely focussed on fans and what fandom means.

The article has much more than we can cover in a blog so the full piece is here.

The Final Whistle

There are many aspects to fandom, we’ve covered some of the ones that frequently appeared in fanzines here. Pride, passion, protest, peers, family pressure and Sunderland. Let’s face it, it just means is being a fan

Issue 2 of classic Liverpool fanzine Through The Wind And The Rain was published in December 1989, just after the first return to Hillsborough for the club. Obviously this was always going to be a raw and emotional visit for Liverpool fans and it was too much for the guys in the ‘zine who just couldn’t find the words.

Sometimes words aren’t enough for even the most fervent fan in fandom, so we’ll stop here.

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[1] https://www.theguardian.com/football/2011/may/16/manchester-united-19-times-banner-anfield